Monday, 6 May 2013

Tesco, 43-45 Farringdon Road

This week saw us venture off the beaten track for the first time in the competition to Farringdon Road but, in all honesty, we weren't looking forward to the preprepared, preprepackaged supermarket entry.

There was a decent sized queue in front of us in Tesco however, if there's anything that we've learnt during the competition, it's not the size of the queue it's what you do with it that counts and Tesco busted through the lunchtime punters very impressively meaning that we didn't have to wait very long to pay and get out of there. Trademark lack of smiles or chat from the miserable staff, which is what we've grown to expect from Tesco staff over years in the capital.

The tomato tortilla was another first for the competition, pleasing on both the eye and palate. We don't know when this was constructed but the fact that it was packaged up and waiting for us in the fridge meant that it couldn't score well for freshness. It was tightly wrapped and compact, containing a decent portion of nutritious spinach and carrot to sit alongside the tasty but dry carrot and coriander falafels. The highlight of this wrap though was the mango and coriander chutney which provided a fruity sweetness to offset the other, more arid contents of the wrap.

At £2.20, this was more Value than Finest and is the cheapest wrap of the competition to date. We could have taken advantage of their Meal Deal by adding a drink and crisps/fruit for just an extra 80p but decided against this since this competition is strictly falafs.

Tesco got its name by taking the initials from tea supplier T.E Stockwell's name and the first two letters of founder Jack Cohen's surname which although is a more inventive name than 'Tony's Cafe' it has unfortunately come to symbolise almost everything wrong with the Western world so was only awarded 1 from a maximum of 3.